Inspiring India’s Youth to Vote in Indian General Elections 2014 With Social Mobile Apps

Recently I was asked on Twitter by one of my friends “How would you inspire and mobilize India’s youth to vote in the Indian General Elections 2014 using social mobile apps ?”. I am writing this article to answer his query.

Youth is the time of life when one is young, but often means the time between childhood and adulthood (maturity). The term also refers to individuals between the ages of 16 and 24.

As the general elections are coming near,every political party is becoming more aggressive towards campaigning and making their presence among youth users.Election Commission of India is leveraging the power of print and TV ads to get youths to know about their rights and come to vote in Indian General Elections 2014. What they have not thought of is the power of social mbile apps between youths. You can see yourself the apps penetration between youths of India. Almost 63% of social mobile apps are used by youths i,e, the people of age between 16 and 24.

Infographic showing Social Mobile Apps Penetration in India

Due to these youths, India is ranking no. 1 across all major app stores.

Infographic showing Social Mobile Apps Penetration in India

This proves that the best way to make youths aware of Indian General Elections 2014 and inspire them to vote is the use of social mobile apps. Now the question is what steps should be taken to leverage the enormous power of social mobile apps to get youths to vote in elections. Here are the features of social mobile apps that must be used for this cause :1) By Holding Contest Using Moments : By holding contest, youths can be mobilised to vote. Contest should be like sharing photos of index finger having ink certifying that you have voted and sharing it on Moments via WeChat publically. The photo having the most likes overall gets to win the prizes.2) Social Voting Using Look Around: WeChat is not restricted to only network of friends but also helps in expanding the network. Using the Look Around feature, youths can look at the active WeChat users in a particular area and connect with them to go to cast their vote in groups as youths are social and going alone to vote seems boring to them. 3) Sending Inspirational Messages Using Drift Bottle : Using Drift Bottle feature in WeChat, any WeChat user can throw bottles into the sea with voice or test message (once the drift bottle feature is activated) and someone from anywhere in the world will pick it! This feature can be used to send inspirational messages to provoke youths to vote.4) Using Emoticons : We all love emoticons! They’re the perfect way to express your mood.All apps have emoticons but WeChat goes a step further. You can take any image of your choice, convert, save and send it as an emoticon! So using emoticons feature,anyone can convert photos of index finger having ink and using them as emoticons.5) Connect Youth Voters Using Shake : Another fun feature is the Shake Feature. Youths can just activate the feature and proceed to shake their phone. As they do that, if there’s anyone else anywhere in the world shaking their phones at that instant, their names will pop up on your list! Connect and start chatting! There should be a fixed time made to meant for youth voters to Shake their phone so voters can connect to each other and share and cherish their voting experience with each other.